Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office Rolls Out Anti-fraud Tool on Website

FraudSleuth™, Powered by PropertyInfo Corporation, now available to help protect constituents

HOUSTON (Jan. 19, 2012) – PropertyInfo Corporation announced today that Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office in New Mexico is the first county clerk’s office west of the Mississippi River to install PropertyInfo’s FraudSleuth software on its website to assist residents in protecting themselves against fraudulent liens placed against their properties.

“With the increase in fraud nationwide, I believe more and more counties will soon offer software of this nature,” said Lynn Ellins, county clerk of Doña Ana County. “We’re pleased to be the first among all western states to offer it to the residents of Doña Ana County.”

FraudSleuth empowers property owners to do simple name searches throughout the Doña Ana County document database to find liens that may have been placed against their properties. “A mechanic’s lien can be placed on any real property in the State of New Mexico without notification to the property owner, and such liens can adversely affect the owner’s ability to refinance or sell the property until the lien is removed or resolved,” Ellins said.

Ellins continues, “We were able to procure the FraudSleuth software at no cost, as part of our comprehensive PropertyInfo’ eRecording system, CountyFusion™, and we implemented it on our website immediately offering a new service to our constituents.”

“We plan to enhance the system later this year to allow property owners to register their email addresses with the county, so that if any document is filed in the Clerk’s Office with the name of a registered user on it, the affected person will receive immediate notification.”

About FraudSleuth

FraudSleuth, developed by PropertyInfo Corporation, is a user-friendly tool for property owners to conveniently access official public records. Property owners can access FraudSleuth online through their participating county recorder of deeds offices. Users can conduct simple searches to review all activity under their name, and if suspicious activity is found, they can contact the county to request an additional investigation. FraudSleuth is available to county governments nationwide in conjunction with CountyFusion software, with additional enhancements available in early 2012. For more information, call PropertyInfo at (877) 800-3132.

About PropertyInfo Corp., a Stewart Company

PropertyInfo Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Title Company, delivers state-of-the-art real estate information solutions to the real estate, closing and mortgage industries. As a global provider of online transaction management and e-closing solutions, real estate information services, title/escrow production systems, hosting services, software development and online product distribution via its Web portal, PropertyInfo.com, PropertyInfo provides title and real estate professionals with the electronic data and integrated applications needed to increase their business efficiency and improve the quality of information used throughout the real estate transaction process. For more information, visit http://www.propertyinfo.com or e-mail at smarttechnology@propertyinfo.com.

About Stewart

Stewart Title Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp. (NYSE-STC), a customer-driven, technology-enabled, strategically competitive, real estate information, title insurance and transaction management company. Stewart provides title insurance and related information services required for settlement by the real estate and mortgage industries throughout the United States and international markets. Stewart also provides lender services, automated county clerk land records, property information reports, background checks and expertise in tax-deferred exchanges. More information can be found at http://www.stewart.com, or by visiting the Stewart blog at http://blog.stewart.com, following Stewart on Twitter @stewarttitleco, becoming a member of the Stewart Title group on LinkedIn, or liking Stewart on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/StewartTitleCo.